Ève Laurier, Vice President of Communications, Public Affairs and Marketing at Bombardier, is leading the company’s community and government engagement, its employee and customer outreach, and stewarding the brand journey internally and externally, around the world. Insights Success caught up with Ève to learn more about her journey and what makes her such an influential leader.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at Bombardier. What challenges did you have to overcome to reach where you are today?
Working as a marketing and communications professional enables me to shape the development and evolution of products and services, while supporting audience interpretation and understanding of benefits. Creating, and protecting reputations and instilling pride is essential for continued business success. Stewarding brands externally to global audiences and internally to colleagues is incredibly stimulating. It is also critical for audience acceptance, which makes it one of the more challenging areas of marketing any brand, and one of the more challenging elements of my career journey.
Overcoming these challenges both at agency level and client side has helped me develop a 360- business perspective, which combined with more than two decades of experience is supporting my stewardship of the Bombardier brand well.
Tell us something more about Bombardier, its mission and vision.
Headquartered in Montréal, Canada, Bombardier is a global leader in business aviation, with a worldwide reputation for creating innovative and game-changing executive aircraft for a demanding international audience. The mission of our exceptionally talented workforce is to deliver superior, world-class experiences that set new standards in passenger comfort, reliability, safety, product innovation, while respecting the environment through a commitment to a sustainable future. Our vision does not stop once an aircraft transaction completes. Bombardier stays with the customer along their ownership journey providing superior customer support through dedicated service centres, mobile teams and a singular ambition to ensure that the Bombardier ownership experience is exceptional.
On an environmental and social front, Bombardier is a signatory to the United Nations’ Global Compact, promoting its key principles on human rights, labour, anti-corruption and the environment. Our ESG plan is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), focusing on those where we can have the greatest impact. I am particularly passionate about our role in helping propel the widespread use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF, at Bombardier and throughout the facilities. It is an important pillar toward our industry to significantly lower CO2 emissions and SAF is a powerful solution as it can be used by existing aircraft.
Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the Aerospace niche through your expertise in the market.
I am delighted to leverage my skills to communicate the strength and depth of the Bombardier products, philosophy, and brand to our global customers. As we adhere to our pledge for a sustainable future, we are proud of the level of employee engagement that is making the commitment to this goal possible. We have invested significantly in making our operations and facilities more environmentally friendly, and we continue to invest in sustainability through our R&D. It’s also very important to me that we continue to lead industry engagement in the education and adoption of sustainable aviation fuel. From this solid foundation we are glad to be influencing our own community, government, industry colleagues and customers’ thoughts about environmental responsibility. Through messaging, communications, and marketing I am pleased to be making an impact by changing the environmental narrative from what the aviation sector is negatively contributing, to what we are positively achieving – it is a monumental transformation for me, Bombardier, and the industry as a whole.
As the aerospace industry continues its evolution, the need to attract a more diverse workforce is essential. We are a multinational organization present in 14 countries, and we are proud of the number of nationalities that are represented amongst our colleagues. We also recognize that it is our responsibility to create a more inclusive workforce and increase the number of under-represented groups in our teams, which through solid communications about the working environment, attracts a broad set of applicants. As a female senior executive, I am already playing my part in achieving this goal!
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful?
Bombardier’s technological advancements have a sustainable impact and thanks to visionary design and development our flagship aircraft, the Global 7500 aircraft, is the first business jet to have an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). This third-party audit provides detailed information about the aircraft’s life cycle environmental footprint. As the first business jet conceived with this approach it clearly highlights Bombardier’s commitment to its overarching environmental sustainability strategy.
Exemplifying our industry-leading stance is the creation of the global sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) initiative. Bombardier is a key member of the Business Aviation Coalition for Sustainable Aviation Fuel, and we’re proud to be significantly contributing to encouraging the increased uptake of, and demand for, the carbon emissions reducing fuel. We recognise our responsibility to the planet and remain committed to delivering exceptional products for our customers and the environment.
If given a chance, what change would you like to bring in the marketing industry?
Bombardier is already instigating change in the marketing sector by breaking down silos that have traditionally existed along the business jet ownership supply chain. Formerly explicit product details were the focus of marketing activity however we are evolving our strategy to enhance the customer experience through the forging of an innovative suite of relationships with a diverse set of aviation companies.
By facilitating simplified access to leading providers of essential aviation services through the Bombardier brand we can deliver a seamless operational experience that saves time, money and reduces workload.
In Singapore we have enriched our maintenance, repair and overhaul offering by forming a strategic relationship with award winning fixed base operator Jetex. Through their private terminal at Seletar Airport, Jetex offers state-of-the-art flight planning, concierge, fuel, and other ground support services. We have a similar relationship with Signature Flight Support in the U.S. and Europe, providing our customers with a suite of multi-faceted initiatives that transform and enhance the service experience at our facilities. From arrival to departure customers have access to all the elements necessary for a seamless operational experience.
This breaking down of silos changes the marketing landscape as we move away from marketing aircraft and add value by defining a holistic customer lifestyle approach.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals for Bombardier?
As a senior executive at Bombardier, I’m in the privileged position of being able to support company growth, evolve its reputation, deliver the sustainability message effectively, and influence industry changes and attitudes in terms of attracting women and under-represented groups to the sector. This will not only enhance the Bombardier business, but it will effect positive change within the industry as we lead by example.
I also want to demonstrate the human side of Bombardier through creative storytelling – building a strong narrative that resonates with authenticity and inspiration. I’m passionate about telling Bombardier’s story through the eyes of its people. Our dedicated and highly skilled workforce give the best of themselves each day and it reflects in the quality of our products and services. It’s important to convey the story from their perspective to reveal the human spirit behind our world-class organization.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the marketing sector?
There is no single piece of advice that will make an entrepreneur successful as there are so many factors in play, but you must believe in yourself and your goals. Don’t wait for the opportunities, make them, and be sure to take them. Surround yourself with positive people who have similar goals and aspirations. Don’t think too hard about all the things that you can’t achieve, focus on those you can, and the rest will follow.
